Saturday, December 31, 2011

After working for a non profit for several years, I started the year on a sabbatical...trying to figure out what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go. And then James got the opportunity to telecommute and work from home. Side by side 24/7? Is there a thing as too much togetherness?

Apparently not because we loved it!

And we decided to completely revamp how we eat and exercise, cancelled our gaming accounts and finally went out to see what this beautiful state had to offer.

Breathtaking.

Admittedly, we fell off the healthy living wagon for a while with the Holidays and all but we're committed once again. Sorry, Tony H, we're back!

We also went a little overboard on our hobby/obsession - LEGO - tripling our collection which required a dedicated room...

And my most viewed blog post of the year (or all time, really) came about from helping out a friend with a design concept for her new store - a penny countertop.

Then there was Lucy.

Living with a kitten has been a mixed bag - some wonderful moments and some incredibly exasperating moments. But how can you see that little face and not fall in love? She is so obviously smitten with Daddy, curling up next to him, playing fetch and following him from room to room. Can't blame her though - he is pretty irresistible.

And I turned 40.

No parties, I said. Something about this milestone was so hard to swallow, I didn't want to celebrate it. So, James just bought me this...

Which made it a bit easier to handle.

I ended the year with a new job in a new field. A little daunting, somewhat overwhelming but I love a challenge. With it, came the opportunity to work with people I both liked and respected! It's been a long time coming.

Thank you 2011 for one of the best years of my life. And throughout it all, I had the fortune to share it with my best friend - who makes me smile and laugh and thinks I look at him with rose colored love goggles. But honestly, what's not to love?

Saturday, December 10, 2011

The day before a total lunar eclipse. We set our alarms for 5 am and jumped (okay, crawled) out of bed. And were promptly met with a wall of fog. Thanks Portland!

We drove around trying to see if the fog was better in other places with no luck. After James had to answer my question "Is that the moon?" with "No, that's a street light", we called it and went back to bed.

Bummed.

This photo was taken on Dec 8th. Clear skies. I think the Moon is just f*cking with me.

Sunday, December 04, 2011

The Blink episode of Dr. Who scared the crap out of me. It featured these aliens/monsters, Weeping Angels. They freeze in place (as stone statues) when they're being observed, but if you blink or look away, they quickly and silently move... towards you. o.O

There's even a Minecraft mod featuring them. I had a REALLY hard time watching this Yogscast video.

I think Lucy is part Weeping Angel. I'll be in the kitchen making dinner or washing up with no sign of the elusive kitten. But then I'll turn around and there she is. Silent and immobile. Just staring. Look away for a moment and look back - she's inched her way closer. Still staring.

So I laughed and said "Hey James, I think Lucy is a Weeping Angel..." Then I stopped laughing.

Look at how much she's grown. This is where I sigh nostalgically and think about how tiny she was when we first brought her home. That was over 3 lbs ago. She's more than doubled in size now.

She also likes to scratch, scratch, scratch. We've been using soft paws for a month now with mixed results. One application is apparently supposed to last for 4-6 weeks. Yeah, right. We have yet to go more than a week without one or more disappearing. I have no idea if they're falling off or being chewed off (likely).

Luckily, Lucy is pretty calm during the mani process, despite being obviously unhappy. This week, I used pink caps which are much more noticeable. So I can quickly see if she's missing any. Also, they look hilarious. Definitely getting glitter for the next batch.

Only did a few on each paw this time since she still had some clear ones on.